Newman 'delighted' Robert Fardon to remain behind bars

PREMIER Campbell Newman has promised to do everything he can to keep Robert Fardon behind bars.

He told 4BC he was "delighted" Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie's appeal had been successful.

"We're very happy with that," he said.

"This means it goes back to trial division to go again.

"We will be working as hard as we possibly can to make sure this individual doesn't get out.

"We've got to follow the process of law but we don't believe he should get out."

Bravehearts welcomes decision

CHILD protection advocate Hetty Johnston is relieved "dangerous" sex offender Robert Fardon will remain behind bars but questioned what must "happen before someone is deemed too dangerous to live in our community".

She said playing "this cat and mouse game every year" to assess a dangerous sex offender's rehabilitation attempts was harmful to victims and the community.

"I'm ecstatic, I didn't expect it, I thought he would get out today," she said.

"Every year we get worried and nervous.

"Every year it costs taxpayers a lot of money."

Ms Johnston said the LNP government was strong on child protection and she was looking forward to the two-strikes mandatory life imprisonment legislation to "kick in".

"This is not a man we can, with any kind of conscience, allow to walk around our communities where there are children. He's just too dangerous," she said.

"I don't believe he can ever be rehabilitated.

"He can't help himself, it's just who he is.

"The only place they can't hurt women and children is in jail."

Ms Johnston said the 34 conditions for release originally order would not cut it.

The Court of Appeal was asked to review a Supreme Court justice's decision to release Fardon after the state's Attorney-General argued the 64-year-old had an incurable psychopathic personality disorder and would always remain a danger to the community.

The Court of Appeal ordered the case for release return to the Supreme Court trial division to be heard again.

Solicitor-General Walter Sofronoff, acting for the Attorney-General, told the Court of Appeal last month that the justice who deemed Fardon suitable for supervised release had erred in the way she considered evidence from a psychologist and two psychiatrists.

He said the psychologist, who suggested Fardon had improved his attitude to co-operating with authorities, began his assessment from a flawed basis.

He said Dr Grant believed Fardon would benefit from a sexual offender treatment program even though he was not diagnosed with paedophilia.

But he said Fardon had thus far refused to complete the program.

Dan O'Gorman, acting for Fardon, told the appeal court the releasing justice had made adequate provisions to protect the community and mitigate risks his client might re-offend.

He said the justice rightly considered Fardon's behaviour changes towards corrective services procedures and limited steps to prepare for release.

The Attorney-General successfully made an 11th-hour bid to stay Fardon's release order in February.

Fardon's release to the community was blocked just hours before he was to be transferred to the Wacol precinct on a five-year supervision order.

The offender has spent 23 years in jail, with his three most serious crimes relating to sex offences against two young children.

Fardon, born in Murwillumbah in NSW, was the first Queenslander given an indefinite jail sentence, after the law was changed to keep him behind bars.

After reviewing his indefinite status under the Queensland Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act, Justice Debra Mullins found he remained a danger to the community but the risk could be reduced with strict conditions.

Those conditions included a GPS tracking device, curfew, monitoring directions, drug and alcohol abstinence, and bans from going unsupervised to a place that houses children, intellectually disabled persons, mentally ill persons or people with substance misuse difficulties.